Stuffing machines having a plurality of stuffing horns are known in the art. Typically, these machines have at least two horns carried by a turret. One horn on the turret is in a stuffing position while casing is loaded onto one or more of the other horns. As the casing supply becomes exhausted during stuffing, the turret is indexed to move one of the other horns and its supply of casing into a stuffing position. Such an arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,675,945; 4,307,489; 4,438,545; 1,043,241 and 557,032 among others.
It also is known to shirr casing onto a horn at one position and then move the horn into a stuffing position. As an alternative, the casing is shirred onto a carrier located adjacent the stuffing horn and then the casing is removed from the carrier and transferred by mechanical means onto the stuffing horn. This arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,660,254; 4,625,362 and 4,358,873.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,489,460 and 4,593,433 disclose still another arrangement. In these patents, the casing articles comprise a shirred casing disposed on a tubular core wherein the tubular core constitutes a disposable stuffing horn. A loading device moves these articles into a stuffing position for connecting the tubular core directly to an outlet of the stuffing machine. After the casing is stuffed, the loading device moves the tubular core (now empty of casing) away from the stuffing position. Thus, the device disclosed in each of these patents is a loader/unloader in that it loads the cored casing article into a stuffing position and removes the empty or spent core from the stuffing position.
In general, the devices for loading casing into a stuffing position (and unloading spent cores) are arranged, and take up space, at the side of the stuffing machine. This in turn limits access to the stuffing horn from only one side of the machine and interferes with the simultaneous use of side-by-side horns for stuffing.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a loading apparatus for supplying casing articles to a multihorn stuffing machine.
Another object is to provide loading apparatus which is located above the plane of the stuffing machine thereby providing free access to either side of a stuffing horn located below the loader.
A further object is to provide loading apparatus which permits the simultaneous use of two side-by-side horns for stuffing.
Yet another object is to provide a loading apparatus for supplying casing articles onto an upwardly tilted stuffing horn.
A still further object is to provide a loading apparatus for moving a cored casing article into a stuffing position, the casing article comprising a shirred casing disposed on a tubular core, and then removing the tubular core from the stuffing position after the casing has been stuffed.